Tag: writing

I’ve Reached A Milestone, Of Sorts, With This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

With a great deal of assistance from Claude LLM, I’ve stabilized the entire outline of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on. The outline is a little bit longer than I’d prefer, but I’m fairly content with what I’ve come up with.

Now, of course, comes the difficult part of going through and writing out the rest of the novel. Right now, I’m approaching the midpoint. I have to admit, that I have only really glanced at what Claude LLM has come up with for the rest of the outline, so there may still be structural issues that I don’t know about.

But I am definitely on the right path. I’m definitely headed towards wrapping this novel up in early 2026, potentially such that I can turn around and query it in spring 2026.

I just don’t know. So much could go wrong. And it could be, in the end, that my native writing….just sucks. But this whole thing is existential. I kind of feel this is my last shot. If I don’t write something queryable by spring 2026 then I’m just going to be an old failure.

Absolutely No One Believes In This Novel, But Me

by Shelt Garner
@Sheltgarner

This happened before, with the other novel I was working on — it is very clear that absolutely no one believes in it but me. I continue to be rather embarrassed about how long it’s taken me to get to this point with this novel.

But things are moving a lot faster because of AI.

Not as fast as I would prefer, but faster than they were for years. Oh, to have had a wife or a girlfriend to be a “reader” during all the time I worked on the thriller homage to Stieg Larsson. But, alas, I just didn’t have that, so I spun my creative wheels for ages and ages.

And, now, here I am.

I have a brief remaining window of opportunity to get this novel done before my life will probably change in a rather fundimental way and the entire context of me working on this novel will be different.

Anyway, I really need to wrap this novel up. If I don’t I’m going to keep drifting towards my goal and wake up to being 80 and still not have a queryable novel to my name.

I’ve Really Been Struggling With The ‘Fun & Games’ Part Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It’s times like these when I really wish I was 25 years younger and I was actively writing half a dozen spec scripts all at once in LA. But that’s just not to be. I really sometimes think this whole endeavor is extremely delusional given how old I am, where I live, and the fact that I’m a loudmouth crank.

And, yet, developing and writing this scifi dramedy novel is existential. I really have nothing else to do with my life and I really want to at least see how far I can get in the querying process.

I wish I had a wife or a girlfriend to be my “reader.” I probably would definitely have gotten to this point in the process a lot — A LOT — quicker. But here I am, just struggling with the fun and games part of this novel, all alone.

I’m pretty sure — hopefully — that I’ve figured out all the various structural issues of this novel, at least this part of it. I sent the first act outline to someone in hopes of at least getting some sense of how good it is, but now all I worry about is they’re either going to steal my idea and maybe write a much better novel or screenplay from what that first act or they’re just going to say it sucks.

Anyway. I’ m moving forward with this novel. I just need to stop daydreaming so much about the Impossible Scenario. I have just a few months before my entire life is going to change because of fucking Trump and so I really need to get this thing at a querying level of quality by Spring 2026.

Well, That Would Be Amusing….I Guess?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Some time ago, I was getting all these pings to this little obscure blog from places in China. It was as if whomever it was, was hoovering up everything they could. I have thought a lot about this and I may — may — have come up with some sort of possible solution.

Maybe, just maybe, the people involved wanted to train an LLM off of my writing? Or maybe use my writing to give their LLM…personality?

I know that sounds bonkers, but why else in the world would someone in China of all places want to scoop up everything they could find about me. I don’t quite know what to make of this possibility.

The idea that somewhere out there, there is an LLM with my persona is both eerie and amusing. I guess? It would be fun to talk to that LLM — if exists — from that POV.

But maybe I’m totally imagining things. There are all sorts of reasons why someone in China might scrape this blog. Yet the idea of me inhabiting an LLM is by far the most amusing of the various possiblities.

Break On Through

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I had to cut some corners with a few scenes simply to keep momentum going. I felt like I was spinning my wheels so I just decided to screw it and move past some scenes that maybe weren’t perfect.

I decided this because I’m going to have to go through the entire novel anyway once I finish it just to get rid of any “AI-speak” that may have slipped through.

I continue to feel a little insecure about how interesting and unique this novel is. There are so many “man falls in love with a bot” ideas floating around because of the zeitgeist, I really worry that mine will just cause people to roll their eyes and say, “No another one.”

Anyway. I hope to get past the “fun and games” part of the novel sooner rather than later. I can’t just keep going over the same scenes over and over again, never getting any traction. If I don’t buckle down and do something focused I’ll be 80 years old and still two years away from finishing a novel.

Time To Re-Evaluate

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I really need to take a deep breath and re-evaluate where things are with this novel. The premise is very, very strong. Prescient even. But the thing that has happened that I did not expect is I have leaned into AI helping me with development too much.

As such, I keep finding spots where the outline designed by AI doesn’t fit my personal vision and so everything sort of implodes and I have to figure out how to fix things.

So, I think today I’m going to just chill out for a few hours then throw myself back into development and writing. I can only rest for so long, however, I really need to get something, anything done ASAP so I can query this novel by spring 2026.

I just can’t keep drifting towards my goal. If I do that, I’ll wake up and be 80 years old and still two years away from feeling comfortable querying this thing.

Using Claude LLM To Help With My Writing Can Be…Humbling

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Whenever I get too cocky about my writing ability, all I have to do is show my stuff to the LLM, Claude. Wow. Do I have a lot of work to do to improve my writing. But that’s what I need, I suppose.

I’m in desperate need of an editor and Claude is really great manuscript consultant.

But I’m DEFINITELY going to go through, once I finish this draft of the novel and go through and try to eliminate “AI speak” as much as possible from the finished product. I get kind of frustrated, sometimes, with how much Claude destroys my writing and I just say, “Ok, whatever, I’ll just use what you gave me for the time being.”

Then I feel guilty and vow to root around in the text once I finish this draft. I just refuse to give people any excuse to roll their eyes and say, “AI wrote it, he sucks as a writer.”

So, I’m going to zoom through this draft of the novel, then spend a month, maybe really putting my personal touch on things. I’m a decent writer, maybe not GREAT, but good enough, I think to produce a novel good enough to query by spring 2026.

No One Listens To Me, Redux

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My novel is actually predicting a potential literal future before us and yet I can’t get anyone to notice this. But I believe. I really do. I just have to stop staring out into space and get this novel done.

Using Claude LLM is really helping a lot. I bit the bullet and actually subscribed to it because of what a good manuscript consultant it is. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than developing this novel alone.

Meanwhile, I’m also trying to make people take note of how conscious AIs may lead to a new abolition movement and, again, no one seems to give a shit. But they will one day. One day we’re all going to be squabbling over if it’s even possible for an AI to be conscious or if so, if it’s an abomination against the good Lawd.

I can hear the debates already.

I say this, of course, in the context of being someone who is probably in the socio-economic sweetspot for someone who might “fall” for a female AI android. Now, THAT is going to be an interesting conversation to have with my family, let me tell you.

But that’s at least a decade away, I think.

Update On My Scifi Dramedy Novel For October 30, 2025

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Claude LLM is really, really good at being a manuscript consultant. It has helped me a great deal. I see it as an enhanced, advanced word processor with me continuing to do the hard work of actually, like, writing and stuff.

I continue to feel like I’m spinning my wheels to a limited extent. I have totally changed the order of the plot in some respects just the morning. And I’m beginning to worry about scene bloat. And, yet, I am in the first half of the second act and that’s supposed to be the longest part of the novel.

So…lulz?

The real test will come in the second half of the second act. I have a lot of ground to cover then and I’m really worried the novel’s scene count will balloon. I’m hoping for no more than 120,000 words, but if I start to creep up to 160,00 like a Stieg Larsson novel I may just have to grit my teeth.

But one major flaw of how I develop novels is I don’t really know word count until the very end of the process. And, in a sense, think that’s probably for the best. I just need to shut up and write, as they say.

I really hope this damn thing is no more than 140,000 words. If it’s 160,000…oh boy. That is going to be a tough sell.

Anyway, if you need any creative writing to do, I highly recommend Claude LLM to be your consultant. I say this in the context that I can neither afford nor get actual human literary consultants to give me the time of day.

They think I’m a freaky weirdo that they don’t want to work with.

Rachel Sennott Would Be Perfect For A Traditional Heteronormative Romcom

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Rachel Sennott is a prime example of how fucked up Hollywood is right now. Sennott would be perfect to play frustrating Annie Hall-like characters in a few romcom movies. She could legit be “America’s Sweetheart” if she just was willing to do something as pedestrian as be the female romantic lead in a traditional heteronormative romcom.

But, alas, that’s just not in the cards I fear.

She will continue to go the whacked out “woke” route or do really weird hypersexual stories. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a place in the marketplace of ideas for such stories, but, sigh. What could be.